American taxpayers have provided £61.5 billion since 2002 and Britain about £890 million, for hundreds of development projects.

The military operation has cost America a further £296 billion and Britain £22 billion.

Nearly 13 years after the Taliban were overthrown, the US and other donors continue to fund 60 per cent of the Afghan national budget and are pledged to underwrite a further “decade of transformation” in the country.

“Large areas of the country will soon be off limits to US personnel due to base closures and troop withdrawals,” the report by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction says. About 80 per cent of the country is already beyond the reach of US government monitors, according to an estimate last October.

Senior members of the Afghan government have accrued vast wealth since 2001 including members of President Karzai’s family.

A US army analysis made public in April said: “Corruption directly threatens the viability and legitimacy of the Afghan state.”

Western forces are “trapped in a warlord protection racket”

Despite $7.6 billion spent on counter-narcotics operations, opium production has increased for the past three years and is now at record levels.

America and the EU spent more than $3 billion on building up the Afghan police force, yet 54,000 of those policemen are “ghosts” — non-existent but being paid each month.

Mr Sopko found that 16 Italian-built C27 transport planes worth $486 million had been left to rot next to the runway at Kabul airport.

The US had provided 747,000 firearms to Afghan security forces worth $626 million. They found that 43 per cent have disappeared from official stock lists that track their whereabouts in Afghanistan.

What some see as "perfect stupidity" others (especially the industrial-military complex) see as a "job well done", complete with arms to the Taliban to ensure that the war on terrorism goes on and on.

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